Our beloved LIDL supermarket has recently launched a “Too Good to Waste” trial in aid of reducing food waste across their stores. Five kilograms of fruit and veggies will be on sale for £1.50 simply because they are a little battered, near their use-by date or are just no longer in the “perfect” consumable state! These boxes are on sale first thing in the morning between 8-10am and the remainder are donated to other local causes via their Feed It Back food redistribution programme. This trial has taken place across 122 stores and if successful, will be spread nationwide, saving the country over 10,000 tonnes of tasty goodness from going to the dumpster. Amazing! Not only does this initiative reduce waste, it encourages shoppers to buy nutritional fresh produce at cheaper prices and is great news for those cash-strapped households.
LIDL seems committed to doing their bit with a 25% reduction target of food waste by 2020; and it appears to be working! In just one year their average food waste production per store has fallen by 13.3%! I’m hoping this trial reaches my local LIDL stores soon – you really can’t complain for £1.50.